THE ECLECTIC APPROACH

Harold E. Palmer

Harold E. Palmer contributed to ELT methodology and linguistics with a number of works. Now I would like to concentrate on two of his most important works to describe his methodological principles and mainly the ones referring to teaching lexis. They are as follows: Hie Scientific Study and Teaching of Languages and The Principles of Language-Study.

Palmer does not reject the direct method, but 1*3 does not accept it completely either. As a follower of Henry Sweet he determined the linguistic basis of foreign language teaching in an exact way. Palmer describes his eclectic approach in the following way in The Principles of Language-Study:

"This attitude is fairly well designated by the term eclectic;

it implies the deliberate choice of all things which are good, a judicious and reasoned selection of all the diverse factors the sum of which may constitute a complete and homogeneous system." (108)

A special emphasis is laid on how to teacli lexis in Palmer's eclectic approach. Palmer classifies the lexical units like this:

1. Monologs - words considered merely as conventional orthographic units of vocabulary:

dog, beautiful, go, slow, up etc.

2. Polylogs - units composed of two or more monologs in juxtaposition but functionally and semantically equal to a monolog.

Polylogs are often called phrases, groupwords or word groups: in case, leave off, every year, etc.

3. Mio logs - are significative or functional units stich as

affixes and the more concrete inflexions: -iy, ment, -less, -ed, -ing, -ist, -er.

Mono-, hi-, multi-, poly-, unl-, nun-•, in-, ex, etc.

4. Alogism is the term we may use in order to designate ttiose cases in which a given concept is expressed without the use of any concrete lexicological unit. Instead of saying tree which bears fruit we may say fruit tree.

Palmer calls the smallest unit of the language the ergon which can be any of the above mentioned lexical units and sentences are formed from these ergons. This concept appears later in the theory of kernel sentences by Chomsky and in this way Palmer precedes generative and transformative grammar. Palmer's principle of ergonic combination onans that beginners should learn first the basic units of the language i. e.

the primary matter imitatively by heart and from this they will be able to build up and derive sentences i. e. the secondary matter. (Palmer 1917: 6B). That is why Palmer lays great emphasis on learning by heart which fie regards the basis of all linguistic study, for every sentence ever uttered or written by anybody has either been learnt in its entirety or else has been composed (consciously or subconsciously) from smaller units, each of which must at one time have been learn! by hüirt. (Palmer 1917: 60). For this principle i. e. creative learning at a syntactic level Palmer developed a special methodological procedure in the form of substitution tables.

Palmer suggests the following four ways of semantjcizing:

1. By immediate association, i.,e. associating the unit with that which is designated by it.

2, By translation, i. e. associating the unit with the equivalent native unit.

3 By definition, i. e. associating the unit with its definition or paraphrase.

4. By context, i. e. giving examples of its use

Though Palmer emphasizes the primacy of the foreign language I« does not exclude the mother tongue when semanticizing. Vitien it .is convenient to

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-use material association there is no reason whntnver why this mode should not be given preference, but wlien neither the objects nor pictures representing them are available, translation is by. no means to be despised and will very often be found more 'direct' than the two other modes (Palmer 1917: 55).

Palmer knows for sure from practice that bilingual associations cannot be avoided. The tendency of the average student, more especially in the early stages, is to associate the foreign word with its native equivalent. We may, if we choose so, assure him, that this is a vicious tendency: we may go to great trouble to replace it by the three other modes. We may refuse to give him the native equivalent and forbid the use of the bilingual dictionary. But we eta not and cannot prevent the student from forming bilingual association if tie wishes to do so (Palmer 1917:

69). That is why Palmer disapproves of the exclusion of translation as a means of sematicizing both pedagogically and from the point of view of usefulness.

I think we can share Palmer's opinion that no hard-and-fast rules can be laid down as concerns the permissible ways of semanticizing. When conveying the meaning of a certain lexical item we cannot say that exclusively only one method can be used and we cannot totally reject any of them. Each of them lias its own place and any of them can be effective and reasonable.

Palmer also points to the importance of the visual method as the most important mnemonic method in language teaching which helps to form correct associations. No doubt, especially in the primary school it is more reasonable and effective than verbal explanation.

New let rne sum up Palmer's basic methodological principles in the light of teaching lexis which tie laid down in The Principles of Language Study:

1. Palmer regards language learning as a liabit forming process, a process during which we must acquire new habits. We may acquire proficiency in two ways: by farming new habits or by utilizing and adopting appropriate old habits (i. e. habits already aquired). By the oatural or spontaneous method we learn unconsciously; we must therefore train ourselves or our students to form habits unconsciously. When

teaching lexis it can be attained by exercises aiming at the formation of the rigid associations between the words arid their meanings, by moans of rigthly formed associations. Vie have not acquired a word until we can produce it automatically. Automatism can be formed by repetition, hut is siculd not be monotonous, parrot-like.

2. Accuracy means conformity with a given model or standard. The principle of accuracy requires that the student shall have no opportunities for making mistakes until lie has arrived at the stage at which accurate work is reasonable to be expected. There may be accuracy and inaccuracy in meanings. The meaning of a word may vary considerably according to its context. Most English words have two or more meanings, the foreign words which are assumed to be their equivalent may also have two or more meanings, but the foreign word does not necessarily have all

the meanings of the English word and vice versa.

3. Gradation means passing from the known by easy steps, each of which serves as a preparation for the next. The vocabulary in a well-graded language course will ho arranged in stich a manner that the more useful words will be learnt before the less useful, There are two sorts of useful words; those which are useful in themselves and words which are useful as sentence formers. In the ideally graded course the student first assimilates a relatively small but exceedingly important vocabulary; he learns to use it, lie learns the most important peculiarities of each word; he learns how to combine these words in sentences; he learns the exact range of meanings covered by each word.

4. The principle of proportion does not necessarily imply equivaiity of treatment nor even a fixed standard of ratios; it simply means that all the items in the range of subjects and aspects must receive an appropriate degree of attention, so that the student's knowledge of them rn3y ultimately form a harmonious whole. The principle of proportion may also be observed or violated in the selection of vocabularies, 1o include in early lessons words or forms which are comparatively rare, archaic and useless, while excluding some of the commonest and most useful items of language material is an offence not only against the principle of gradation but also against the principle of proportion. We have also to note a regrettable tendency to give preference in vocabularies to words

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-of special utility (such as names -of plants, animals, parts -of' hotly, tools) and to neglect unduly words of general utility, words which may occur in any context and which are common to any subject.

5. The principle of concreteness neans to teach more by examples than by pretext. The examples themselves may vary in concreteness, therefore we should select for our purpose those which demons träte in the clearest possible way the point we are teaching and which tend to form the closest semantic association. There are four ways and four ways only of furnishing a student with the meaning of given foreign units:

by immediate association by translation

by definition by context

These four methods or modes of semanticizing a unit arc heir: given in order of what are generally their relative degrees of concreteness. There may, however, be some cases in which translation will bo more concrete than immediate association.

6. No work is likely to be successfully accomplished if the student is not interested in what he is doing. Habit forming work hns the reputation of being dull and tedious. The true remedy is to devise a number of varied and appropriate exercises in order to make the habit forming work itself interesting.

At the end of his work Principles of Language Study Palmer summerizes again the essence of his eclectic approach which he also calls a multiple-line of approach.

"The term 'multiple-line of approach' implies that we are to proceed simultaneously from many different starting points towards one and the same end; we use each and every method, process, exercise, drill, or device which may further us in our immediate purpose and bring us nearer to our ultimate goal: we adopt every good idea and leave the door open for all future developments; we reject nothing except useless and harmful forms of work. Ihe multiple line of approach embodies the eclectic principle, for it enjoins us to select judiciously and without prejudice all that is likely to help

us in our work...,..., vie adopt the liest and cmst appropriate means towards the required end". (Palmer 1921: 141?

Palmer's eclectic approach and his substitution tallies were a significant contribution to the methodolody of foreign language teaching and in the next chapter we will see how the American linguists made use of and developed his substitution tables.